The Amulet Book 1: The Stonekeeper
by Justin Durfee
Summary: Life is rarely what you want and never what you expect. Emily and Navin only wanted a normal life after their father died, but normal wasn't what they got when they found themselves in an unfamiliar world where they must use their wits and work with unlikely allies to survive and head off the war looming on the horizon. But this is only the first step on their journey.
1. Prologue

A small car drove down a highway. On one side was a short stone wall about ten feet high; on the other was a guardrail to keep traffic from accidentally driving over the sheer cliff face and falling to the base fifteen hundred feet below. The highway had two lanes, both of which were just wide enough for cars to travel single-file, and streetlights spaced at regular intervals provided illumination. But this was a simple backroad between Los Angeles and Sacramento, and was traveled by both family and corporate vehicles. It was dark and cool because it was winter, but winter in southern California is quite mild compared to other places in North America, so there was no ice, which was good.

But this winter was peculiar. That morning, it had gotten just cold enough to snow and stayed that way all day. Earlier that evening, the sky decided to shake its head again and dumped five inches in two hours. Due to this rare phenomenon, and the fact that the weathermen were predicting the sudden chill to persist, the school district had declared a break through the weekend. After that, if the weather lifted, school would resume. But just because there was snow on the ground gave no reason for traffic to cease. So the little car drove on, virtually unhindered by the current conditions other than a reduced speed warning.

Inside the car was a young family. In the front were the parents, David and Karen Hayes, both about thirty years old. In the rear-left seat was their eleven-year-old daughter, Emily, who was somewhat an odd product of her parents' strong relationship. While her father was a dark brunette and her mother was a sandy blonde, Emily's hair was red like a late sunset. In sharp contrast to her mother's lanky face and her father's square frame, Emily's face was round. Indeed, the only things that might be considered "normal" were her eyes, which were hazel, a common outcome when the genes for brown and green eyes mix.

Karen looked at the clock. "David," she said, "we're supposed to pick up Navin at eight o'clock; we're late." Navin was their six-year-old son, who had just started school that past week.

David, whose mind seemed to be somewhere else, was rather oblivious to the time displayed. "We've got plenty of time," he replied. "At least a half hour."

Karen gave him a confused look. "Honey, we're supposed to be there at eight and it's seven forty-five; fifteen minutes is not half an hour."

In the back seat, Emily giggled. "I think Dad lives in an alternate universe," she said. "Time moves slower there."

"That would certainly explain a few things," Karen grumbled.

David looked at his wife. "I'm sure Navin won't mind playing video games a few minutes longer," he told her.

Emily leaned forward and asked, "Hey Dad, I get to play a game when we're there, right?" David nodded. "Yes!"

"Sit back down, Emily," Karen chided. "And put your seatbelt on." Then she addressed her husband again. "David, it's already late. By the time we get back home, it'll be past eleven."

David sighed and nodded. "You're right, you're right." Glancing back at his daughter, he said, "Hear that, honey? Sounds like we'll have to postpone our game for next time."

"Aww."

Karen pointed forward. "David…"

"I see it," he said. A pickup truck had turned the corner, and the high beams were glaring at full power. "Guy's not paying attention to his brights."

The vehicle's driver must have been drunk or tired, because driving while either was just plain stupid. Just as the two passed each other, the pickup's driver blew the horn, startling David. As his eyes readjusted to the dark, another car on their side of the road became visible. Its hood was up and smoke was rising from the engine, and the driver was standing at the back of it with his hands on his head in disbelief. He turned and saw them heading straight for him just as Karen shouted, "David, look out!"

At the sound of her voice, David stomped on the brakes. But the road was just slick enough that the wheels couldn't grip it enough to stop the car. "Hold on!" The car slammed into the guardrail and smashed right through it. Emily screamed in terror as it slid down the slope that luckily was there rather than the cliff. Due to David's attempt to swerve and miss the broken-down driver, the wheels were still turned. The car turned in that direction and the momentum flipped it upside down. Finally, the car slid into an old tree that stopped it cold…

Right on the cliff's edge.

David opened his eyes, glad to at least be alive. But his own physical condition was a fleeting concern next to that of his wife and daughter. Looking at Karen, he asked, "Are you okay?"

Karen held a hand to her face. "My nose is hurt," she answered. Then her eyes flew open. "Emily. Where's Emily!?"

David looked in the back seat. "Emily!"

Emily appeared to be okay. She was hunched over in as tight a ball as she could manage, shivering with fear. "I'm fine, Dad," she answered shakily. "Just scared."

David heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank God," he breathed. "Okay, here's what I want you to do. I want you to unbuckle yourself and climb out through the front." Emily nodded, and pressed her thumb into the buckle release. With a thump, she fell to the roof of the car and began crawling forward. "That's it," David said. "Keep going." Emily pulled herself from the car through the front window. "Good. Now get away from the car, Emily." As Emily put some space between herself and the car, David turned to his wife. "Okay Karen, your turn."

Karen unclipped her belt, then pulled herself from the car with Emily's help. David unbuckled his belt and tried to exit the car after them, but felt something like a serrated blade cutting into his legs. "Dad!" Emily said. "Give me your hand!"

"It won't do any good, honey," he told her. "My legs. They're jammed under the dashboard." There was an ominous creaking noise, and the car began leaning toward the cliff.

"Daddy, please!" Emily begged. "Just give me your hand!"

"Em, you can't do it by yourself," he told her. "You'll need help."

"Mom!" Emily cried. "Dad's stuck, help me!"

Karen was there instantly. "David! What are you doing? Get out of there now!"

David shook his head gravely. "Karen, my legs are stuck, and something's cutting into them. We'll need someone to pry me out…" He seemed to remember something. "That guy on the highway! Find him. He might have something that could—"

"David, we don't have time!" Karen told him and the metal groaned. "The car's tipping! Just give me your hand!"

David did as he was told. But when Karen tried to pull him out, he let out a yell of pain. "Stop, stop! I can't move! Keep pulling and all you'll get is my arm! I can't do it, Karen."

"You're gonna have to try, David! Please, honey, just try!"

"I am! My legs are stuck under the dash and it feels like something's cutting into them. Even if I could get out, I'd bleed to death before help arrived."

The car leaned further. Emily ran around to the front and jumped up, grabbing hold of the bumper and trying to use her weight to balance it. But an eleven-year-old child weighs an average of a hundred and ten pounds, and a Ford Escort weighs in at just over half a ton. The only thing keeping it from falling over the cliff was the old tree, which was slowly coming loose at the roots. Emily willed herself to weigh more, but the car was winning and soon lifted her off the ground.

"Karen, let go," David said slowly.

"What?" Karen couldn't believe what she was hearing. "David, no!"

"You need to look after Emily and Navin," he told her. "Let go."

Emily could hold on any longer. The cold was numbing her hands and the metal was cutting into her fingers, and she dropped to the ground. "Mom, Dad! Get out!"

David's hand was slipping out of Karen's grip. "Honey, please. Cruel as it is, this is my fate." Tears welled up in his eyes, blurring his vision. "Please, Karen…let go."

"David, I'm not letting you go!"

But the car was tipping further, taking David with it. "Karen…" His fingers started to slip. "I love you." His hand slipped from Karen's grip and Emily pulled her out of the window just as the old tree supporting the car came free and fell, followed by the car with David still inside. Karen let out a shriek of disbelief and agony, and held onto Emily for all she was worth.

Emily stared on in horror, her mind unable to accept what had just happened. She was in such shock that she didn't feel the freezing breeze or hear the sirens of approaching law enforcement and fire department vehicles.


	2. Chapter 1

Two years later

Karen and her two children, Emily and Navin, drove down an old road that hadn't been used for some years. The road went through a forest of pine and fir, the sun flashing like a photographer's camera with the passing trees. The small car they were riding in was a gift from Karen's brother when David and the other car were lost. It was still in working condition, but the transmission was in desperate need of a tune-up and the suspension was wearing out, making every bump, rock and pothole clearly felt. The car was loaded with all their belongings, which were stuffed into shoeboxes, garbage bags and suitcases.

Emily sat in the back on the driver's side, staring out the half-open window with a glum look on her face. The air that rushed in had the crisp chill and scent of mid-fall, but it was lost on her. Ever since her father had fallen off that cliff two years ago, her disposition had been decidedly dark. She'd distanced herself from her friends, gotten into trouble at school, even shouted some foul words in the principal's office. Karen had explained more than once that Emily had never quite gotten over her father's death. She watched a trio of ducks skimming the surface of the river they were driving over, but was too distracted to take any pleasure from it.

Navin looked back from his seat beside their mother, and Emily turned her head toward him. To the casual observer, she was simply bored out of her mind, but Navin knew better. Only seven years old when their father died, he'd been too young to comprehend what had happened and his constant inquiries of why daddy wasn't there now had driven Karen to tears many times. Now he was nine and better able to understand why his father was no longer with them. He'd been a smart boy from the beginning, so smart that his teachers had insisted that he skip the first grade. At age nine, he was a year ahead of most of the other kids.

_Just like his father,_ Karen thought. Must run in the family. _David always was a brainiac._ She took a deep breath and looked ahead, fighting back tears. _I miss you, honey._

Navin pulled a face at Emily, hooking his fingernails under his lower eyelids and sticking his tongue out, in an attempt to at least make her smile. But all he got in return was a flat stare.

Karen looked over at him. "You keep that up," she told him, "and your face will freeze like that."

He grinned. "I'm trying to cheer up Em," he said. "She's making that mopey face again."

"Don't listen to him, Mom," Emily said flatly, her voice tight with indignation. "I'm doing fine."

Karen couldn't suppress a chuckle. "Just so long as you find ways to amuse yourselves and stay out of trouble, I don't care what you do with your faces." She sucked in a deep breath and leaned forward. "Anyway, I think you'll like this town. It has an amusement park with roller coasters, water slides and miniature golf." She cast a pointed look at her children. "The only catch is that our new house will need a lot of work to make it liveable."

Navin sighed, memories of their other place coming to the forefront. "Why'd we have to leave our old house?" he asked. "Everything we had there was new."

Karen closed her eyes against the tears that were threatening to blur her vision. "I know, but new things take money, and we can't afford them. Not since your dad passed away. Out here, at least, we won't be under so much strain." She forced a cheery tone into her voice. "Besides, this house has been in the family for years."

"Mom, we're in the middle of nowhere," Emily said, her words carrying a tone that denoted the obvious.

"There are plenty of places in this country that are 'in the middle of nowhere'," Karen told her. "Though, none of them are quite as populous as Norlen. It's a fairly sizeable city." At that moment, they passed a sign that read, Now entering Norlen, population 28,000. "You'll see. It's not that different from anywhere else." A few minutes later, the distinctive triangular shape of a roof poked up above the trees. "Well, here we are."

They turned a corner and pulled up to an old colonial-style abode. Built from cherry wood and stained to a rich glossy brown, the ancient structure was three stories tall with large, round-top windows. Karen cut the ignition and the car's engine fell silent, then unbuckled, opened her door and stepped out. She moved a bit stiffly—riding in a small car for hours on end can do that—but after a moment of stretching walked in front of the car.

She took a deep breath and held it, then let it out with an exclamation of, "Smell that fresh air! Isn't it great?"

Emily slowly stepped out of the car, looking up at the old house. It loomed over her, its two highest windows like eyes and ground floor windows like a row of teeth. Though she knew it was an inanimate, lifeless object, she felt like it was watching her. She didn't even hear when her mother commented about the keys still working.

Karen inserted the appropriate key into the lock, then turned it slowly clockwise. The rusty metal screeched in protest, but quickly gave in to the twisting force. There was a click, followed by a clunk, then Karen turned the knob and pushed the door open.

A soft exclamation of disbelief escaped her lips as she beheld the house's interior. It was dark inside. Though there were no curtains, the windows were boarded over, allowing only slats of light to penetrate the musty darkness. "This house," she said, "is needing a lot of love." Emily and Navin followed her in. "Everyone, stay close." They ventured into the gaping space that was their new home. The smell of dust and years of neglect filled their nostrils. "Watch your step," she told them as they mounted the stairs to the second floor.

She and Navin turned one way while Emily's attention went to a strange design on the window at the end of the hall. It was shaped roughly like a tree, with the trunk and a full crown of leaves, but had a vaguely sinister feel to it. There were five holes in the crown of leaves, almost like eyes, and two wicked curved horns set over four small points. Through her fascination, she began to see something like a monster in that creepy design…

"There's no way we can sleep here like this," said Karen, snapping Emily out of her spellbound stare. "We'll have to attack it."

A short time later, the three of them were back at the front door, armed with appropriate weapons for assaulting a dirty house. Dew-rags covered their heads. "Are you ready?" Karen asked in a low voice, like they were preparing to attack an enemy stronghold.

"Ready when you are, Mom," Emily answered.

Navin, in a righteous show of masculine courage, shouted at the top of his lungs, "BRING IT ON!"

They brought their weapons to bear.

"CHARGE!" Karen bellowed, running into the house like an angry bull. Navin and Emily were hot on her heels, ready to cause some serious damage to the thick layer of dust and grime that coated everything. They brushed, swept, wiped and scrubbed like maids gone mad, attacking their enemy with the ferocity of cornered animals. With time and a lot of effort, they began to make progress. Dirt that had been left undisturbed for too long lost its grimy grip on whatever surface it clung to and came off in gummy clumps, and dust that had accumulated was lifted into the air in choking clouds.

However, dirt and grime weren't the only signs of neglect and lack of human habitation. In the years since whoever last lived here had left, time and the elements had enlarged cracks and notches in the construction to the point that birds and small animals had moved in. Feathers and old nests could be seen in the rafters overhead; clumps of fur and tiny piles of scat were found under the furniture; there was even evidence that some small canine or feline had once called this place home. Then, of course, there were the dusty cobwebs that seemed to infest every corner and tight space. No old house was complete without those.

After a while, the foyer was starting to look somewhat habitable. That alone had taken almost two hours. All of them had made their best effort to, at the very least, get the floor clean so they'd have a place to sleep tonight.

Eventually, Emily wandered upstairs. She couldn't get that strange design in the window frame out of her head. It had been in the back of her mind ever since she'd seen it. She knew there wasn't any logical reason for it to fascinate her so, but it did. And she didn't know why. To anyone else, it was simply the design favored by the house's builder. Strange, to be sure, but captivating all the same. Like a demonic tree, or some plant with horns, she thought.

Her feet unconsciously carried her toward the window. Her eyes wandered around the corridor and settled on a door that she hadn't seen before. It had a rounded top and a small viewport in the middle, high enough up that an adult could look comfortably through it. She briefly considered opening it, but curiosity overcame practicality: She reached out and turned the knob. The door's old hinges creaked as it swung inward.

What met her eyes was something she hadn't expected.

It was a large, two-story room. The ground floor was occupied only by a large wooden desk with some dusty old books and a globe resting on its top. Above the desk was a large portrait of a man—she guessed him to be anywhere from late twenties to early forties—with red hair like her own, dressed in a sharp suit typical of the early 20th century and a pair of round spectacles over his eyes. His expression, if he wore one, was more stoic than blank. It was the days before fast-developing camera film, and most people didn't want to stand for hours wearing a smile or some other expression that would likely freeze before the picture was finished.

On the bottom of the frame was a plaque bearing a name, which she guessed to be that of the man: Silas Charnon.

She had no idea who he was, so she looked around the room and her gaze settled on a small podium with a thick book on it. The book's front cover was divided into eight slices by as many bars, all branching out from a small oval in the center. In the oval was a double-ended arrow over what looked to be a simple diagram of a house. Driven by curiosity, she opened the book. It crackled as she folded back the cover. Clearly, the thing hadn't felt human hands in quite some time.

Behind her, a tendril of darkness extended toward her back. It morphed into a shape resembling a three-clawed hand, flexing like it hadn't moved in ages. As it approached her, it coalesced into an amorphous mass much like an amoeba. Two eyes appeared—large, yellow orbs with slitted pupils. It looked over her shoulder at the schematics and diagrams of various technological wonders that were never built. Strange contraptions that would never be used.

It extended its clawed hand toward her shoulder…

"Emily!"

Navin's voice cut through the palpable silence like a thunderclap. The mass whipped around, now aware that there was more than one presence in the house. It headed toward the vent over the door, sliding through the grate as easily as smoke.

"Emily?"

The smoky, amorphous mass disappeared just as Navin appeared in the door.

"Whoa," said the boy in wonder. "Hey Mom! Come see what Em found!"

Karen was beside him in a moment. "Oh wow," she said, just as surprised. She entered the large room, gazing about like a child in a candy store. "This is my Grandpa Silas' library."

Emily crossed back over to the large portrait. "So this is great-grandpa?" she asked.

"Yep," said Karen.

"Is he still alive?"

Karen thought before answering. "That's a good question," she said. "Nobody knows what happened to him after he disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

Navin, having lost interest in the relative he knew nothing about, began to wander the room and found the spiral staircase in the far corner. Karen continued her narrative behind him.

"After great-grandma Isabel passed away, Silas was utterly heartbroken. Eventually, he locked himself in this room and was never seen or heard from again. That's why the locals think this place is haunted."

"Is it?" asked Emily.

"Of course not. NAVIN!" The boy started. "Get down from there!"

"Aw, come on, Mom," Navin complained. "I'll be fine. There's nothing up here but old junk."

The mysterious mass oozed out from behind an old crate and along the floor like heavy mist.

"There are so many blueprints," said Emily, opening the book again. "Was he an architect?"

"No," answered Karen in a resigned tone, "he was a puzzle maker. I know he was proud of that fact. Though, I always thought his puzzles looked more like machines."

"Wow," Navin droned, staring at some weird contraption called a card-bot.

"I'm glad you're taking an interest in his work," Karen said. "It should make an interesting school report."

Emily gave her mother a half-incredulous, half-terrified look. "Do I have to go to school?" she whined. "I can learn everything I need to know on my own."

Karen sighed. They'd done this same dance three times before. "I know you hate going to a new school again, but there's no way around it." She tried to gave her daughter a reassuring smile. "I'm sure you'll have no trouble making friends."

"It's not that, Mom," Emily interrupted. "It's that I don't see the point of learning stuff like math and science when I know I'll never use it in the real world."

Karen chuckled. "And when did you know so much about the real world?"

"It's true, isn't it?" Emily was starting to get irritated.

"That's beside the point," Karen told her.

"You said Great-Grandpa Silas didn't go to school, right?"

"Emily—"

"If so, then he was obviously a lot smarter than all those 'educated' jerks who do."

"My grandfather was eccentric," Karen said. "And not someone you should look up to."

"What?" Emily couldn't understand this. Her great-grandfather wasn't someone to look up to? The evidence to the contrary seemed to say otherwise. "Why not?"

Karen's face hardened slightly. "Just trust me, Emily. It's better to lead a normal life like everyone else." Then she smiled and turned around. "Let's go back downstairs and finish cleaning. We have a lot of work to do before it gets dark."

Emily felt like her mother wasn't telling her something, but decided it could wait until later. Just as she was about to follow, she caught a glimpse of something under the book. Pushing it away, she discovered a hand-shaped depression in the podium. Inside the depression was a set of grooves, separating it into quarters and swirling toward the center. Eight arrows pointed outward just inside the circle. She reached her hand toward it.

"Em, wait," said Navin. She looked at him expectantly. "I don't think you should."

Her expectant gaze turned questioning. "Why?"

"You don't think that anything in this room is even the least bit creepy?"

Emily let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh, grow up!" She placed her hand in the depression.

And jerked back an instant later with a sharp yelp of pain. She looked at her hand and saw a tiny bead of blood forming on her index finger.

"See!?" demanded Navin. "I told you not to touch it!"

"Don't be such a baby," she shot back. "It's just a tiny nick."

The grooves in the depression, as well as the circle's edge and the arrows just inside it, began to glow. Navin and Emily looked at it in wonder for a minute before it shot out beams of intense light, and flipped over with the sound of grating stone. When it came to rest, they saw a dummy neck like they'd seen in jewelry stores. It was pure white, without a single scratch or speck of dirt on it, despite the years it must have sat idle.

On it was a gold amulet strung on a cord and set with a large rosy gemstone of some kind.

"What is it?" Emily wondered aloud.

"Who cares?" Navin demanded. "We just saw a podium light up and flip over! Let's go back downstairs."

Emily looked at him incredulously. "You're awfully dull, you know that? Where's your sense of discovery?"

"Long gone." He grabbed his sister's wrist. "Let's go."

But Emily jerked her wrist from his grasp. "Wait a minute." She looked at the necklace. She couldn't understand why, but she felt drawn to it. Like the thing was calling to her. A tiny voice in her brain telling her to pick it up. And she did. She held it in front of her face. It gave of a very faint glow and pulsed with a sort of energy. It was mystifying, almost hypnotic.

Navin's voice snapped her back to reality. "Come on, Em. Let's leave it there and tell Mom about it."

She looked at him. "She'll just tell us to put it back." She motioned. "Help me put it on."

Navin, his mind still trying to assimilate what he'd just seen, unconsciously did as he was told. He took it from Emily's hand and pulled the two strings behind her neck. "I'm not good at knots," he said.

"It's easy," Emily replied. "Just make two pretzels."

"Two pretzels…"

Navin stared dumbly at the two string ends in his fingers, trying to visualize what a double-pretzel knot would look like. And almost gasped when the strings did as Emily had suggested. On their own. It was almost too quick for him to follow, but he caught that the suggested knot was just short of tying a shoelace. The two strings pulled tight.

"Did you tie it?" Emily asked.

"Um, I…" Another impossible thing for his mind to digest. "I think so."

Emily held the gemstone in her hand. It still radiated with energy, if only just within perceptible limits. "It's beautiful," she all but whispered. Then looked at her brother seriously. "Don't tell Mom, okay?"

"I want one, too," he whined.

Emily's serious expression softened. "Cheer up. I'll let you wear it when I'm done with it." She patted his shoulder and headed for the door. "Come on. Let's go help Mom finish cleaning."

Navin watched her turn the corner and disappear. "How come I never get anything first?" he complained to himself.

His crestfallen mood was dispelled when a flash of cold coursed through his body. It was that feeling people get when they just feel like they're being watched. His eyes widened at that pricking of the sixth sense programmed into every living thing, and turned around to scan the room. His eyes told him that he was alone, but that eerie feeling of unknown company didn't go away.

His heartbeat increasing, he raced after his sister. "Em, wait up!"

From the balcony, a silhouette with glowing blue eyes watched from behind a crate.


	3. Chapter 2

The sun was setting on their first day in their new home. Rays of light became dimmer and shadows longer as the sun dipped below the western horizon. Navin clicked on an industrial flashlight and stared into the bright glare it gave off, his face somewhat sad. Memories of his father came flooding back for the first time in almost a year. He was old enough now to understand what death was but still too young to really comprehend it. Karen dug into the box that was marked 'delicate' and found some candles, struck a match and lit the wicks. Then told Navin to turn off the flashlight to conserve its battery.

They laid out their bedrolls and hunkered down in preparation for sleep. Navin sat on his knees and dug into a cup of top ramen, scraping at the stiff paper with his plastic fork to get every morsel of chickeny goodness. Karen pulled her knees up and locked her arms under them. Emily pulled her arms from the sleeves of her sweater and then pulled the front of it down over her legs.

"The power should be back in a few days," Karen said, trying to chase away the oppressive silence. "Until then, it'll be just like we're camping out."

She looked at her daughter. Though neither of her children had answered her, Navin at least had a reason. But Emily looked glum, almost sad, and it worried her. "What's wrong, Emily?" she asked.

A few seconds of silence passed as Emily considered how to answer. Finally, "Why did we move out here? Honestly?"

Karen tried to put on a cheerful face. "I thought you'd like all this nature," she said. "You always loved summer camp."

"Yeah," Emily replied, a slightly complaintive tone to her voice, "but that was only a month. Not, like, forever."

Karen's face hardened slightly, and an edge entered her voice. "Look, I just wanted us to have a new life, leave the old one behind. Is there something wrong with that?"

"Only that we didn't have to come all the way out here to do it," Emily retorted. Then, probably not the best considering the current circumstances, "It's not something Dad would have done."

Navin's eyes widened and he gulped, trying to shrink back and get out of the line of fire of the verbal battle he knew was about to begin. He'd been caught in the middle enough times to recognize the signs.

Karen's lip quivered. "Why do you say things like that, Emily?" she asked, trying to hold her voice steady.

"Because it's the truth," Emily answered.

"Look, I just…I didn't…" Karen lost her composure and began to cry, covering her eyes with a hand and shaking with quiet sobs.

Navin looked at his sister, whose expression had changed from indignation to remorse. Emily scooted over to her mother. "Mom," she tried. "Mom, I'm sorry."

Karen sniffled, took a deep breath, and calmed down enough to speak. "I miss your father as much as you do," she said. "I wish he were here, that I could talk to him." She took a shaky breath. "But more than that, I wish I knew what to do. I whish I wasn't alone."

Emily began to realize that it was partly because of her that they got into these fights. She'd keep her emotions bottled up until she finally exploded. Not in a string of hurtful words and foul language, but thoughtless and emotion-driven statements. She struggled for some-thing to say, but found that all she had was, "You're not."

Karen sniffled again, then looked up and smiled. "Come here. Both of you," she told them. They did as she requested and she pulled them into a hug. "I love you both so much. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you, too."

"You won't, Mom," Emily said. I promise.

They remained in that close embrace for some time.

A couple of hours later, the candles were burning low. Karen had tried to dispel the sadness with stories that brought back happier memories. Navin had fallen asleep by the end of the first and was now snoring like a lion. Karen smiled softly as she pulled the sleeping bag over him, then turned to her daughter. "How are you doing, Emily? Are you warm?"

"I'm good. Thanks, Mom."

"Okay." Karen slid into her own knapsack. "We have another long day of cleaning tomorrow, so get some rest." When this failed to elicit so much as a nod from Emily, she added, "You know, if this doesn't work out, we can go back to the city."

Emily sighed. "It's fine, Mom. I probably just need some time to adjust."

Karen smiled, happy that her daughter was finally beginning to perk up, and laid her head down. Soon she was fast asleep.

Emily lay awake long after the candle had burned down to a waxy puddle, trying to figure out exactly what she'd felt from the necklace she'd found that afternoon in her great-grandfather's library. She held in front of her face, straining to see it in the dim glow from the moon outside. She traced its intricate designs of patterns, turned it over and over in her hand, thinking that looking at it from some other angle might reveal something about it.

After a while, with a lot of wasted effort and nothing gained, she stuffed it back into her sweater with a sigh of frustration and slowly fell asleep.

About two hours later, she began to hear a voice. At first, she though it was her mother's, but noticed as she came more fully awake that the voice wasn't male or female. It was somewhere in between. And dismembered. Emily, it said.

Emily stirred herself and cracked her eyes open. The first thing she saw was a bright pink glow, the amulet hovering in the middle of it. The thing was talking to her! Her eyes snapped open. Her first instinct was to panic, to scream and flail in an effort to scare it off. But as her brain kicked back into gear, she realized that it wasn't threatening her. Rather, it seemed to be trying to warn her.

Emily, it said again. Listen carefully. Your family is in danger. Stay with them.

Safe from what? she asked. The voice fell silent and the glow faded. Wait! The amulet fell against her chest.

Thump! A muffled noise startled Emily back to reality and she gasped, all senses coming to attention. She listened for a minute, and when nothing else reached her ears, she lowered her head again.

Thump! The same sound snapped her head back up.

She heard a gasp that wasn't her own and looked up to see her mother sitting upright. "Did you hear that?" she asked.

Karen nodded. "It's coming from downstairs." Even though she was whispering, the sound of alertness tinged her voice.

Thump! The next repetition woke Navin. "Mom, what's that?" asked the boy.

Karen reached from their flashlight. "I don't know, Navin," she answered as she clicked it on. "I'm going to check it out. You two stay here."

"Heck, no," Emily said. "We'll go with you."

"Absolutely not," Karen replied, her voice layered with authority. "I'm not letting you get hurt if it's dangerous."

"Mom," Emily interrupted. "Remember when I said you wouldn't be alone?" She put a hand on her mother's arm. "I wasn't joking. Navin and me, we're coming. No ifs, ands or buts."

Karen looked at her, then at Navin, who nodded rapidly with a big grin. She sighed in defeat, knowing that her daughter had a point. "Okay," she conceded, "but stay close to me."

They went out into the hallway, the flashlight's powerful beam illuminating the pitch-black corridor. All was silent until they came to the handrail of the foyer balcony. Thump! "Hello?" Karen shouted. No answer. "It's probably just the pipes," she concluded. "Or maybe a raccoon."

Navin was instantly excited. "Raccoon?" Apparently, he thought one of the critters would make a good pet.

The trio descended the stairs. Thump! "Sounds like it's coming from the basement," Karen said. She pulled on the basement door, and the hinges creaked in protest. She looked at her children. "I want you to stay up here, where it's safe," she told them. "If it's really just an animal, I don't want you near it. It may bite."

Emily crossed her arms and gave her mother a look. "What about not being alone?"

"What about it?" This made it clear that the thing making the nose was something she'd rather risk herself with than her kids. "You stay here, and lock this door if I tell you to, okay?"

"But Mom—" Emily whined.

"Just do as I say!" That came out a bit sharper than she'd intended, and she took a breath. "I'll be back when I find out what it is, I promise." With that, she aimed the flashlight down the basement stairwell. Slowly and carefully, alert to any possible danger, she descended into the musty blackness. The smell of dust and years of neglect hung heavy in the air.

Upon entering the basement, she was rather disappointed. There was only junk down here. A bedframe, its faded blue paint cracked and peeling. A freestanding shelf full of dusty books. A stylistic cat's head clock, popular during the '70s. A broken-down washing machine. A decrepit electric stove. Numerous smaller implements of a decorative nature. She swept the beam across the room, revealing more old things of virtually no value. That is, no monetary value, but certainly valuable in other ways.

She sighed and was about to go back upstairs when something else caught her eyes. It was a pale pinkish color, and looked like some kind of tail, or maybe a tentacle. Maybe it was only a tattered length of rope. But the bright color seemed out of place in this dank and dusty basement. She approached to investigate.

Suddenly, it moved, and began to pull back behind the panel of old wood from which it poked out. Karen began to think that it was just a rat or some other kind of rodent that tended to make its home in the dilapidated corners of the world, when the thing it was attached to revealed itself.

Its color faded into a deep lavender from white-tinged edges. It was gaseous and transparent, but had form. It moved like a wisp of smoke, swirling and shifting with the air currents. All this would not have made it half as noteworthy if it hadn't been aware of her, or looking at her with large, slitted eyes. She yelped in fear before she could comprehend what she was seeing.

"Mom?" Emily called. "What's going on?"

Karen's brain kicked back into gear. "Just stay there, Emily!" she shouted, never taking the flashlight's beam from the sentient cloud in front of her. "Get back!" she ordered. Her breathing became quicker. But the thing kept advancing, slowly, like it was trying to catch her off guard. On the edge of her awareness, though, she realized, however dimly, that it was actually pointing to something behind her. "I said, get—" She glanced back and screamed in terror as some octopedal creature with a squidlike mouth enveloped and swallowed her.

"Mom!" Emily took off down the stairs without thinking.

"Em, wait up!" cried Navin as he hurried after her.

They arrived in the basement to find their mother gone and the flashlight on the floor, still lit. "Mom?" Emily called. The sound of a closing door caught her attention.

"There's no one here," Navin observed.

"Something went through that door as we got here," Emily said, pointing the flashlight toward a door in the wall. "I heard it shut." She approached it, took the knob in her hand and turned it. She cracked it open and peeked through.

On the other side was a massive cavern, much larger than the depth of the foundation should have allowed, with a long stairway that slowly spiraled downward. Spiky stone arches stretched out over the steps at three points.

"Mom?" Emily called again.

Aiming the flashlight down the steps, she began to descend, Navin on her heels. They moved slowly, not wanting to trip and impale themselves on one of the numerous stalactites that lined the stairs like a handrail. The enormous space, aside from their breathing and foot-steps, was utterly silent. Emily swept the beam of light across the area and saw a single door at the bottom.

When they reached the door, they felt a blast of cool air. "Looks like there's only one way down," Emily said. She extended her hand. "Take my hand and don't let go." Navin did, and together, they entered the opening.

Inside was another staircase. Partway down, Navin dared a glance back and saw something both fascinating and terrifying. "Em?" His sister looked back.

The corridor was collapsing in on itself, the bricks of its walls filling in the space between. Very quickly. "Run!" she ordered. Navin needed no further encouragement. The idea of being sealed alive in stone was not appealing in the slightest. Hands still linked, they sprinted down the corridor.

They ran for several minutes, adrenaline spurring them onward, the corridor sealing itself just yards behind them. They saw the end and made a mad dash, exiting the tunnel just seconds before it sealed behind them and looked as if it had never been there. Whatever or whoever had the ability to do that must be very powerful indeed.

"Did you see that!?" Navin demanded, gasping. His sister didn't answer. "Em?" He turned around and saw what had captured her attention.

Standing in front of them was an octopedal monster with a squidlike head, beady eyes that glowed white and two rows of holes that ran along each side of its bulbous abdomen. In the center of its tentacled head was a gaping fleshy orifice that dripped with some kind of fluid and had three sets of gummy jaws that pulsed with muscular twitches and decreased in size the further back into the animal they got. The creature was hissing at them.

"Emily!" a muffled voice called out from inside the animal. It was their mom! "Emily, go get help! Don't come near this thing!"

Both Emily and Navin looked on in shock that their mother was inside this hideous crossing of a spider and an octopus. Then Emily bent down and picked up a stick. She wasn't sure she could do any good without a real weapon, but something was better than nothing at this point. Her eyes widened as she perceived the monster change targets. "Navin…" she began. The ugly thing suddenly shot out a hidden tentacle straight at her brother. "Navin, run!" she yelled.

But it was too late. Navin had no time to register what was happening and react before the tentacle wrapped around his waist and lifted him off the ground. Emily jumped up and wrapped her arms around the slimy appendage. She looked the monster square in the eye and shouted, "Let my brother go!" But it simply jerked its tentacle, dislodging her proceeded with its meal.

Navin started to panic, screaming and beating at the tentacle that held him. He even tried biting it, but it was too big for his mouth and the slime that covered it tasted absolutely vile. He looked up and realized that he was approaching its mouth. This thing was going to eat him! The thing pressed him into its feeding orifice headfirst and used its tentacle to push him through its esophagus. He let out a groan of utter disgust and his slid through it. After a few seconds, he emerged inside what had to be the creature's stomach.

"Navin!" a voice cried, and he looked up.

"Mom!" he cried back as he slid free of the thing's esophageal sphincter. "Mom, what's going on? What is this thing!?"

"Don't know, don't care," Karen said simply. "Let's just get you out! Quick, through the hole!" She hoisted him up and pushed while he pulled, trying desperately to free him of this hideously slimy chamber. She felt fleshy appendages brush her back and looked over her shoulder to see several tentacles waving about.

Meanwhile, the spider-octopus thing had set its sights on Emily, and it whipped two tentacles toward her. They grabbed her arms at the shoulders and lifted her off the ground. "Let's go!" she hollered. The thing didn't. "I said…" Her amulet began to glow. "…let go!" The amulet discharged and energy struck the ugly creature in the face.

It dropped her, shrieking, and she hit the ground with a loud grunt and a thump. The energy sparked and zapped as it dissipated. "Emily!" Navin shouted. His head was poking out from one of the holes on its side. The thing turned tail and ran.

"Navin!" Emily jumped up and gave chase, not willing to let this ugly beast claim both her mother and brother. Navin had managed to get his right arm loose, and was now working on freeing his left. Emily sprinted, catching up to it and grabbing his wrist just before her toe caught a rock and she tripped. Her sudden decrease in momentum pulled Navin out of the offensive animal's body. They hit the ground, rolled over the edge and slid down a slope before finally coming to a stop near the base.

The grotesque creature let out a furious screech. "Come on, get up!" Emily ordered, hauling Navin to his feet. "Head for the rocks!" She and Navin splashed through a shallow stream as they raced away, searching for a place to hide. Emily found one first. "Navin, over here! Hurry!" She shoved her brother into a nook and hunkered down beside him.

They heard the giant spider-octopus thing shuffling around and grunting. They didn't know what the sound meant, but they figured it was probably looking for them. It hissed, and it sounded way closer than before. Emily wrapped her arms around Navin as a slimy tentacle slithered over the top of their hiding place. They watched with bated breath as its mouth became visible.

Snap! A noise caught its attention and it turned around, but whatever had made the sound was nowhere to be seen. It walked away, grunt-ing in confusion. "Is it gone?" Navin asked.

Emily peeked around the corner of their hiding spot. "It's still close," she said.

"What do we do about Mom?"

Emily sat down heavily. "I don't know." And she didn't. This was like nothing they'd ever encountered before. Not just that thing, but this whole world was foreign. They might as well be on an alien planet. Suddenly, her amulet began to glow.

Emily, it said in that creepy disembodied voice. It you want to save your mother, then listen carefully. Make you way down the ravine and find the cavern's creek. Follow it upstream until you find the source; there you'll find a house on a stone column. It paused to let her digest the information. Beware the creatures that stand in your way. Whatever happens, you must seek the aid of the man who lives in that house: Your great-grandfather, Silas Charnon. It started to dim. Now go. You've no time to lose. It went dark and thumped against her chest.

"What was that all about?" Navin asked.

Emily peeked around the corner they were hiding behind. The bloated rear end of the thing that was hunting them bobbed and jiggled as it searched for something else, and she took advantage of its distraction. "Take my hand," she told Navin. Her brother did, and they crouched low. "When I say 'go,' we run down the ravine." Navin nodded. Taking one last peek, she saw the monster shuffling around some rocks on the far side of the clearing. "Go!" she whispered.

They tiptoed out of their hiding place for a few yards. Only a few steps later, Emily's shoe slipped on some loose gravel and the stuff crunched under her foot. They heard the creature screech, and Emily yelled, "Run!"

And run they did. Down a very narrow ravine that was just wide enough for the enormous bug thing chasing them. Emily and Navin huffed and panted as they ran for their lives. The clacking noises of the insect thing's legs made it sound even creepier. Soon, they exited the ravine and came to a sliding stop on the top of a cliff. It's a dead end, Emily thought with despair.

Her amulet lit up again. The umbrella mushrooms, it said. Pull the out by the roots and use them as sails.

Sails? Emily asked, not understanding how they could possibly hold their weight. Then it clicked. Parachutes! Working quickly, she crouched down and began pulling on one.

"What are you doing?" Navin asked, his voice panicked.

The gigantic fungus came loose and she handed it to Navin. "Here, take this!" She bent down and started pulling out another. This one came out much more easily than the first. Navin looked back and saw the screeching monster bearing down on them. "Navin, jump!" Emily shouted, but Navin seemed frozen in fear between the monster and the cliff. They couldn't afford to wait. "Jump!" She shoved him off the cliff and jumped after him. They wrapped themselves around the stems of their mushrooms.

Up on the cliff top, the nightmarish creature skidded to a stop and shrieked its rage at its escaping prey. Emily looked back up with a mixed expression of worry and hatred. We'll be back, Mom, she promised.

They slowly drifted down and away from the predator, their paths crisscrossing and they narrowly missed each other several times as they struggled to control their descent. Emily looked over at her brother. "You okay?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah." After a few minutes, he began experimenting with control. "Hey, Em. If you lean, you can steer it."

"Great," Emily answered. "Try to keep it steady."

They continued to drift ever downward. It seemed like this was going to be a long trip to wherever the true ground was. They passed another grove of the giant mushrooms. Navin heard something land on the top of his, then a pecking noise. "Em!" he cried. "Something's eating my parachute!"

"Hold on!" she called back. She leaned and steered her mushroom toward his. "I'm coming, hold tight!" When she judged that she was close enough, she flailed her legs at it, trying to kick it off his fungal parachute but missed by inches. The thing squawked angrily at her and flared its wings to make itself appear bigger and more threatening. "Hold on, I'll come back around!" she shouted. The bat-winged, bug-eyed bird resumed pecking at the cap of Navin's mushroom.

Suddenly, her amulet came to life. In about a minute, that conebeak will peck through the cap, the disembodied voice said. When that happens, Navin will fall to his death.

What can I do? she asked.

_Use the amulet,_ the voice answered simply.

Emily looked on in desperate hopelessness. _How?_

_You've already done it once. You can do it again,_ the voice replied. The amulet glowed brighter. _No more fear. Just focus…_

She fixed her sights on the conebeak.

…_And project that energy._

She shut her eyes tight. The amulet hummed, and an instant later bright red energy arced toward the bird and struck it in the chest. The conebeak shrieked in pain as it was literally cooked alive, then slid off of Navin's mushroom, still sizzling and crackling.

Navin looked at her in utter amazement. "How'd you do that?" he asked.

Emily looked at the hovering, glowing amulet. "I'm not entirely sure," she answered.

"Does this mean you're a wizard?"

"No."

"Wait, a witch. I mean a witch. You're a witch?"

"Stop it, Navin. I'm not a witch."

A few minutes later, they finally met the ground and skidded to a halt. _Remember to use this power wisely,_ the voice said to her. _Being a Stonekeeper is a responsibility you mustn't take lightly._

_A Stonekeeper?_ she asked. But the amulet had already gone dark.

Navin looked back the way they'd come. "What do we do about Mom?"

But Emily's mind was elsewhere. She heard light tickling and looked around. A small river was flowing past them a few feet away. "The amulet side to find the stream and follow the water to its source," she said. "We better do as it says."

"How do you know we can trust it?" Navin asked, clearly uncomfortable with the idea. "That voice sounded pretty shifty."

"That shifty voice saved your life, Navin," she told him. "And it's not like we've got many options right now. So unless you come up with a better plan, the amulet will be our guide."

Navin frowned, but followed for lack of a better idea.

They crossed the stream and climbed a rocky slope, then jumped down a short distance after reaching the summit. A few minutes later, Navin saw three creatures munching on leaves. They were small, about the size of a house cat, with stalked eyes and pink in coloration. They would have been normal to look at if they didn't look like a cross between a slug and an armadillo. One was larger than the others: Apparently, the larger one was the parent and the smaller ones the offspring. He tried to pass with an unthreatening gait, but the things' eyes followed him. He became intrigued and looked around for something to feed them. He turned his head and saw a small tree chute just off his left shoulder and pulled off a handful.

Emily, not realizing that Navin had stopped, kept going, all her energy focused on reaching their destination. She was just hopping onto a rock that came up to her knee when the amulet spoke. Emily, it said. She stopped. Don't let Navin out of your sight.

She turned around to find Navin missing and gasped. "Navin!" She ran back the way she'd come and rounded the corner to see him holding out a leaf to one of the pink slug-armadillo things. "Navin, get away from those things!"

He turned his head to look over his shoulder at her. "They're harmless, Em," he said, one of the little animals rearing up to take the leaf he held in its mouth.

"How do you know they're not diseased?" she countered. He looked back at them, and they stared incomprehensibly back, their eyes wide and vacant. "Come on, get up," she said, hauling him to his feet.

"Aw, come on," he complained. "They're hungry."

"How do you know they want leaves?" she asked.

"That's what they were eating when I found them," he told her.

"And how do you know they don't eat other stuff?" She watched Navin intently as his face screwed up in thought. "Remember what King William told Prince Derek in _Swan Princess_?" Navin nodded. "Things here may not be what they seem. I can't have you getting or hurt on me, now."

The slugadillos watch them until they disappeared, then turned around and started sliding in the opposite direction. They went on for what might be considered quite a distance for them before a hand shot out of nowhere and grabbed the largest one. It shrieked in alarm as it was picked up and held before the face of a young male elf, who looked between it and the other two smaller slugadillos before opening his mouth wide and clamping down on its head.

After a few minutes, he finished his impromptu snack and peered over the low ridge he was hidden behind. A cloud with large eyes swirled behind him, looking where he was. Several dozen yards ahead of them were the two young children they'd been tracking, who seem-ed to be completely unaware that they were being followed.


	4. Chapter 3

Emily and Navin climbed a shallow incline, stepping over rocks and being careful they didn't fall and get hurt. It wasn't long before the heard the sound of moving air, like a breeze rustling the leaves of a tree. They reached the top and saw what they were looking for: A house on a column of stone, just as the amulet had said. "That must be the house," Navin stated.

Emily nodded in agreement. It was definitely the place they wanted to be, but there was a problem. The column of rock that the house rested on was in the middle of a grotto, and the only thing that even looked like a starting point was an old dock on the shore below them. They made their way to it and she knelt down, peering into the water. It lapped and plunked gently against the wood, and except for the tiny ripples arching away from the dock, the water was absolutely calm, like a dark mirror. She could see her reflection. "We'll have to cross," she said, already not liking the idea of swimming the distance. There could be anything in this lake. It could even be cold enough to cause hypothermia. But she didn't see any other alternative. "You ready to swim?" she asked. Navin didn't answer. "Navin?" She turned to see him looking out across the water and into the thick mist that shrouded it.

"Someone's coming," he said. Then she saw it.

A single point of pale yellow light was approaching them, slowly growing brighter and larger. Then they heard the sound of swishing water. A rowboat. A moment later, the form of the rower became visible. Whoever was in that boat was huge, with broad shoulders and wearing clothes that covered everything except their eyes, which appeared only as bright white circles, like goggles. They ran for the safety of the heights and watched as the person or whatever it was in the boat stepped onto the dock and tied the boat to it.

They the massive thing pulled some kind of ray gun out of its long trenchcoat. "What is that?" Navin wondered out loud.

Emily pointed a finger at him. "Hold still, and don't say a word."

The big human-looking thing scanned the rocks, and its gaze fell on where Navin was peering out of. Quickly, he ducked down. "I think he saw me," he whispered urgently.

"Run," Emily said, and they broke cover, not knowing they'd already been seen. Emily ran with Navin hot on her heels before com-ing to a stop in front of another humanoid figure. This one was lean and tall, with a head of the palest blond hair and wearing some kind of armor that had long strips of fabric snapping in the wind behind it. His gloved hands ended in wicked claws, his eyes were slitted with no iris and his ears were pointed like an elf's. At the center of his collar was a glowing stone, which began to grow brighter.

Emily became aware of the thing they'd seen at the dock standing behind them, his ray gun charged and crackling with energy. On instinct, she tackled her brother to the ground just before it discharged, firing a beam of sizzling red-white lightning over their heads. The bolt hit the elf square in his chest, sending him flying backward. The elf rolled several times before sliding to a stop at the bottom of the slope they'd just climbed moments before. The larger figure peered over the edge to survey its work, then turned to the two stunned children.

"You…you killed him!" Navin gasped.

The big cloaked figure shook its head. "No," it said in a voice too small for its size, "I only stunned him." It slapped its ray gun in its hand, and the thing hummed. "He'll get up soon, so we must hurry. To the boat. Quickly." They raced back down the slope, onto the dock and then jumped into the boat.

The elf boy's eyes snapped open and he leapt to his feet, furious, then charged down the slope after them.

The big human with the too-small voice was unwrapping the mooring rope when Navin pointed and shouted, "He's coming back!" They glanced back up the slope to see the young elf dashing toward them.

"Hold on tight," their rescuer told them.

"How can you possibly row fast enough to—" Emily began, but was cut off when a cry of surprise escaped her throat as the big man shoved off so quickly that she and Navin were almost thrown out.

Gripping the oars tight, the enormous guy—lady, thing, whatever it was!—dug them into the water and pulled. That was when they knew for sure that this hulking figure wasn't human, because the little boat jumped from the water. They hopped across the water like a skipping stone until the rower decided they were far enough from the dock to be safe.

Emily looked back and saw the elf boy standing on the dock, glaring after them. "What does he want from us?" she asked.

"The amulet," the cloaked figure answered simply. "Like many others, he seeks its power."

"Power?" Navin was confused. "But she found it in our great-grandpa's study. It's just a dusty necklace."

"No," the figure said. "Within the gem lies the power to command the elements. Such power is rare: Only a handful of these items exists, making them highly sought after and coveted by those who seek to master the world."

Emily suddenly looked at their rescuer with suspicion. "How do I know you're not after it too?"

Without breaking his stride, the figure said, "Because I'm helped get it to you. It's a gift from your great-grandfather, Silas Charnon. He has chosen you to inherit its power."

"And who are you?" Emily asked.

"His assistant."

"Then why do you hide yourself from us?"

"Not from you, from your enemies."

"But we have no enemies," Navin said.

"And what of the one who chased you?"

"Never mind about him," Emily interrupted. "Will Silas be able to help us get our mom back?"

The figure was silent for three strokes before answering, "You'll have the opportunity to ask him yourself. He's been waiting a long time to meet you." The boat scraped against the gravelly shore of the island a few minutes later, and the figure stepped out. "Watch your step," he said, tying it to a post.

Emily and Navin stepped out of the boat and followed the figure toward the house. As they ascended a flight of stairs, Emily looked up and saw a pair of glowing lights in the rooftop observatory, like eyes watching them. They followed the figure through a door and into the foyer of the house, which had some kind of tree with purplish bark and glowing bulbs on its branches.

"Welcome to Charnon House," the figure said as it unbuttoned its trenchcoat. The garment fell open, revealing the figure to be an enormous humanoid exosuit with a sort of cockpit in the center of the top of its chest. A much smaller figure was in the pilot's seat. It took off the hat to reveal a pair of pink rabbit ears. Now in the light, what they had assumed to be eyes before were revealed to actually be goggles. The little pink rabbit took off the maroon scarf around its neck, unclipped the belts holding in the seat, and jump down. It appeared to be like a plush toy: It was covered in downy fluff too soft to be real fur and had a patch on one ear.

Sticking out its hand, it said, "My name is Miskit."

Awkwardly, Emily shook it. "Um, hello." Navin looked up at the contraption in which Miskit had rescued them.

"It's an honor to meet you, Emily," she said. "Now please follow me. Everyone is waiting."

This surprised the girl. "Everyone?" she asked as she and Navin followed Miskit upstairs. "Who's everyone?"

They turned a corner and a robot with a protruding lower jaw spotted them. "Here they come, Ruby," it said. The little robot vacuum on the floor looked up and vroomed at them. Navin looked down at it and raised his eyebrows, more than a little weirded out. The robot in the doorway demanded, "You're kidding, right? They're just a couple of kids!"

Miskit's attitude toward the robot became stern. "Have some respect, Cogsley. Silas knows what he's doing."

"I hope you're right," Cogsley said.

Miskit led them on past. "Don't mind him," she said. "He's always like that." She turned into a room and they followed.

Inside was another robot fussing with the covers of a bed with an old man in it. The robot looked at them. "Oh, thank goodness you're here," it said, sounding like someone stressed out to the max.

"What's the matter?" Miskit asked.

The robot indicated the pulse monitor. "Take a look at his readings."

Miskit looked at the monitor, and worry entered her voice. "They're growing weaker."

The other robot nodded. "He even fainted earlier when I tried to feed him. If this keeps up—" It cut itself off as it spotted Emily and Navin. "Oh, these must be the children," it said, taking Emily's hand in a gentle grasp. "It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Morrie."

The girl introduced them. "I'm Emily, and this is my brother, Navin."

"A pleasure," Morrie said, extending Navin the same courtesy he'd shown to Emily.

Miskit looked at the old man in the bed. He lay with his head propped up on thick pillows, a brainwave sensor on his bald head and oxygen tubes in his nose. The oxygen pump next to the bed hissed softly as she said, "Sir? They're here. They made it."

The old man moaned weakly, almost too quiet to hear, then cracked an eye open. With as deep a breath as he could take, he woke fully, and turned his head to see two children talking with Morrie. He cleared his throat and their attention went to him. Emily gazed at him in wonder and worry, and just a little wariness. He could tell that she felt like she should know him, but didn't, and therefor was cautious. His old lips curled up in a smile, wrinkles deepening at the corners of his mouth. "You must be the one," he rasped, his voice old and rough. "I can see it in your eyes."

"You're Silas Charnon?" Emily asked.

Silas' face slackened a tiny bit, and he nodded once. "Yes, my dear. And you must be Miss Emily Hayes." His eyes went to the boy behind her. "And this must be Master Navin."

Though the old man couldn't pose a threat if he'd wanted to, Emily couldn't help feeling just a little wary. "How could you possibly know us?" she asked. "Or of us, even? All we know about you is that you disappeared after great-grandma Isabelle died and that people think your house is haunted."

"Did you build all this stuff?" Navin asked, eyes wide with wonder.

"Yes," Silas replied. "With the help of a few friends, of course."

"So you know why we're here," Emily said.

"Yes."

"Our mother is in danger. The amulet told us to find you, that you could help us." She looked more closely at him. "Can you help us?"

"My dear, you must understand that I already have." With obvious effort, he extricated his arm from the bed and his hand lit up with that familiar bright red light. The amulet around her neck came to life. "Let me tell you a little about your inheritance," he said. "The amulet contains a stone that can grant someone the power to rule the land of Alledia."

"Alledia?"

"It's where we are now," Silas explained, "an alternate Earth, if you will. In time, you will come to know the land and its people. You will see how beautiful it is."

"But what does any of this have to do with helping us?"

"That will become clearer as you realize the extent of the stone's abilities," he told her. "If you can master it, not only will you save your mother, but you'll gain great and glorious power beyond anything you've ever imagined." His face became sad. "It's something I failed to attain in my lifetime, but you…you can achieve it."

Emily's head spun as she tried to take all this in. "But I'm not interested in power," she said. "I just want to get my mom back and go home."

But Silas refused to give up. "But what if I told you that this power would allow you to turn back time? To make things the way they were?" He paused to let this sink in. "There must have been a time in your life when you were happier. It's hard for me to imagine that you were always this serious and determined. You can have what you're really looking for." He looked deep into her eyes. "And all you have to do it listen to the stone. It will help you attain the power to shape your world. I only wish I could be there to share it with you."

Suddenly, his breathing became shallower and more labored. "Emily, when I'm gone, you'll be left with the choice of either accepting the stone's power or rejecting it. Just remember that both have consequences."

Emily was overwhelmed. She didn't want power. She didn't want to rule a kingdom. She just wanted to get her mom back and get home. In a small voice, she asked, "But why me?"

"Because I know that you won't let me down." Silas looked at the little pink rabbit. "Miskit."

She stepped closer. "Yes sir."

"I've left all my thoughts and memories inside your data banks." Miskit jerked up straight in alarm. "It will be your job to teach Emily and lead her down the right path. You were my apprentice, and now Emily is yours."

"But sir," Miskit stammered, "I'm not ready."

Silas' face suddenly became hard. "You were made ready!" he growled. "This is what I built you for." His face softened again. "The moment I saw their faces, I knew everything would be all right." Miskit's lip trembled. "That's the feeling I've been waiting for my entire life. Take good care of them, Miskit. And good luck." Miskit gasped. "Time to rest." Silas' body relaxed, and the light left his eyes.

Instantly, Miskit was on top of him, screaming. "No! Sir! Wake up!" She grabbed the collar of his shirt and shook it. "You can't give up now! You can't just leave!"

"Miskit, stop," Morrie said quietly beside her.

She didn't hear him. "You can't just leave us with a couple of kids!"

Emily saw a tiny flick of power leave her amulet and dissipate. "Is…is he dead?" Navin asked.

"Silas…" Miskit's voice grew lower. "Don't leave us. Don't leave me."

A few seconds later, Emily and Navin heard soft whirring, then clicks. Miskit's eyes wide the color of her amulet's energy. Emily looked at her warily. "What? Why are you looking at me that way?" She suddenly became aware that every robot in the room was looking at her. Morrie's big binocular eyes turned the same color, and she heard the same whirring and clicking noises coming from him. Then it was over as quickly as it had begun.

"With Silas gone," Miskit said, "you're our only hope. Please don't turn away!"

Emily looked at her quizzically. "Turn away? What do you mean, turn away?"

Before Miskit could answer, a sizzling noise filled the room, and seconds later they were plunged into darkness. "Em?" Navin's voice was tight with fear. "Em?"

"I'm right here," she said.

"What's going on?" Navin asked.

"I don't know."

Suddenly, the amulet came to life. _It's time to choose,_ it said. _Take Silas' place as keeper of this stone, and you'll awaken a family that can help you recover your own._ Emily turned around to see all the robots, Miskit included, slumped over and motionless. _Just take the amulet in your hands and accept its power._ She reached up to take in.

"Em, wait," Navin said. "Think about this. Strange power? An amulet with a mind of its own? I don't trust it."

_Without this power,_ the amulet continued, as if Navin hadn't spoken at all, _you can't attain what you desire._

"Em, don't do it." Navin was clearly worried.

_Without the stone, everything around you will turn to dust._ Emily looked at the robots. _Embrace that power, and use it to save your family._

"Navin," she said, "we need their help."

"There must be another way! We can do this on our own."

He's right, the amulet said. There are other ways, but none so certain. And how can you rely on faith when time is running out?

"Navin, we're in a place we know nothing about. The thing that has Mom is something we've never seen before, let alone know how to handle it."

"And some kind of weird power is a better bet than good old wits?"

Emily froze. She knew he had a point, but also knew that this world would kill them long before they ever reached their mother without the help of this house's inhabitants. She looked down at the amulet. You know what you must do. She took the stone in her hands, and power erupted in a rush of moving air.

"Em, no!"

The hurricane ended as quickly as it began. The power dissipated, the lights turned on and the robots buzzed back to life. _Welcome aboard, young master,_ the amulet said, coming to rest against her chest.

Miskit's excited voice jolted them. "Hey! We're active! We're still in business!"

"Oh, thank Silas," Morrie said, condensation dripping down his metallic head. "That was close."

Miskit looked at Silas, who was now still and quiet, and closed his eyes respectfully. "We'll take it from here, sir," she said, and snapped her fingers. A little door in the wall whipped open and Navin jumped as a small wastebin-shaped robot whirred past on a single wheel and stopped before Miskit, who said, "Theodore, put Silas in a sleep chamber and prepare him for transfer to Kanalis."

"Yes, ma'am," Theodore buzzed. The little robot sounded neither emotional nor distressed by the current events.

"We'll have to consult the main computer to find your mother," Miskit told Emily and Navin. "So please follow me."

Navin turned back to see Theodore pulling the blanket over Silas' head, then looked at his sister. "Em," he said worriedly, "I get the feeling you're getting us deeper into trouble."

Emily snapped. "Look, without Mom, I'm the one in charge, okay? I can handle this."

On a cliff overlooking the grotto, an elf looked down at the house that contained his quarry.


	5. Chapter 4

Miskit led the two children deep into the bowels of the house, then into a large room with a very large robot beside some kind of display in the middle. "This is our command center. It's where we have our mission briefings," she said as they descended a short staircase. "Our main computer is hooked up to this holographic display. We can access anything in our databanks at the touch of a button." She pushed a button and a holographic image of their current area flickered into existence. "This is a map of Gondoa Mountain, where we are now. It also shows every life form in the same space."

The image zoomed in to show some of the same eight-legged horrors that Emily and Navin had encountered when they first arrived. "There," Miskit said, pointing. "That's the creature carrying your mother. It's heading north toward Morley's Cave. If—"

"Say it ain't so, Chief!" Cogsley interrupted. "Don't tell me we're working for the munchkins now!"

"Emily is our captain now," Miskit said.

"She's just a kid!"

"Kid or not, this was Silas' last order. You're really gonna defy him now?" She and Cogsley glared at each other, then Cogsley humph-ed and stomped into a corner.

"Miskit," Emily interjected, "you said she was headed toward Morley's Cave, right?"

"Right."

Emily pointed. "Well, there's a tunnel that could take us straight there. We can take and head them off before they escape."

"That's not just any tunnel, kid," Cogsley said. "That's the Gauntlet! See those things in the walls?" Emily nodded. "Those are rakers."

"What are rakers?" she asked.

"They're some of the most ferocious underground dwellers on Alledia," Morrie explained. "They're basically masses of tentacles and teeth that will eat anything they can catch. Going through there on foot can mean certain death."

Emily looked at Navin, then at the assembled robots. "What other options do we have?"

"The Albatross," Cogsley said, turning around. "You can take the Albatross through the Gauntlet."

"The Albatross?" Miskit was alarmed. "Are you nuts? That jalopy hasn't flown in years!"

Cogsley pointed a stubby finger at her. "You just get ready for takeoff and let me worry about getting it running." He turned on his heel and walked away.

"Can we trust him?" Emily asked Miskit quietly.

"He can be a pain in the butt," Miskit said, "but he's the most honest, hardest-working robot I know." They followed him down into what was obviously the hangar, and what Miskit had said earlier was no exaggeration. Everything was covered in a layer of dust an inch thick, and the Albatross's lemon-yellow paint and sky-blue trim were barely recognizable. While Cogsley opened a panel on the aircraft and began working on it, Miskit motioned for Emily to follow her over to a crate. "Help me open this chest," she said. "Ready?" Emily nodded, and Mis-kit started counting down. "One…two…three!"

They lifted the lid and a thick cloud of dust puffed up, making Emily scramble backward, covering her face. Miskit, being a robot, was unaffected. "I hope these still work," she said, looking at the smaller cases inside the chest. Emily, satisfied the dust had settled enough, rejoined her. Miskit opened one of the cases. "Looks like I only have two tranquilizer darts." She looked at Emily. "We'll have to make every shot count."

"What do we do after it's sedated?" the girl asked.

Miskit pulled out a three-foot missile comprised of a thick wood shaft and jagged metal head. "We harpoon the thing and drag it to a stop."

"There," Cogsley said, closing the panel. "She's good as new." He turned to Emily and Navin, adopting a drill sergeant voice. "Listen here, runts! Miskit's gonna need a copilot, and neither me or Bottle here—" he thumbed at the big robot behind him "—can go on account of us being too heavy. That means one of you midgets has to fly this bucket. Who's it gonna be?"

Emily spoke first. "Navin's too young. I'll do it."

Navin was immediately opposed. "What?!" She looked at him. "If I'm too young, then so are you! Besides, you know I'm better than you at this stuff."

Emily's face became serious. "That's in video games, Navin," she said. "This is real."

"So!?" Navin adopted his begging puppy face. "Please, Em! Please let me fly the plane!"

Emily groaned and facepalmed. "Fine."

"Really?"

"Are you jokers finished?" Cogsley asked shortly. They nodded and he climbed the ladder that led onto the Albatross's wing. "You've got the harpoon cannon and the tranq rifle, right?" he asked Miskit, who nodded. "Then you'll probably need this too." He handed her the ray gun she'd used to rescue Emily and Navin from the elf. "To fend off the rakers." He looked at her seriously. "Be swift. Don't pause to think, or you're spare parts."

"Right." Emily and Navin climbed in, and Navin took the copilot's seat next to Miskit while Emily climbed in the back. "Do you understand how these controls work?" Miskit asked Navin.

"I think so," Navin said. "They look pretty simple." If an H-wheel with two buttons and a D-pad, a speed dial and two pedals weren't simple, he didn't know what was.

"You're all clear," Cogsley called. "Start her up!"

Miskit timidly flipped switches and pushed buttons, hoping the ancient flying machine would start up. She gasped and smiled when she heard the aircraft's onboard generator hum, then the twin engines whir up. In minutes, the old thing was ready for takeoff. The hangar door opened. Slowly applying pressure, she and Navin powered the engines up and the Albatross was airborne. She flipped another switch to retract the landing gear, they tilted forward and exited the hangar. Making a few circles around the cavern to build up airspeed, they bank-ed toward a hole in the wall.

"There's the tunnel!" Miskit had to shout to be heard over the whining engines and wind. They entered the tunnel. "Okay, Navin, I need you on the controls. I'm going to repel the rakers to give us a clear path. Just do your best to avoid the walls and move as quickly as possible." She hopped in the back beside Emily, picked up the ray gun and charged it up. "They'll attack from all sides, so get ready," she told Emily. "Here they come."

Hundreds of enormous lengths of flexible, writhing flesh extended from the walls, ceiling and floor of the cave, the loud buzzing of the Albatross alerting the rakers to the presence of possible prey. They moved sluggishly. "They're so slow," Navin observed.

"We must be just waking them up," Miskit said. "If we move fast enough, we won't have to deal with them."

"Miskit, below us!" Emily shouted.

Miskit leaned over Emily's side of the plane, aimed her ray gun and fired. The bolts of electric energy raced toward the approaching tentacle, sizzling as they went, then spread out and crackled across on impact. She twisted, firing furiously at the arms reaching greedily for them from every direction. Every tentacle hit retreated, sizzling and crackling as the stunning energy from the ray gun forced them back. She turned and shouted, "Emily, watch out!"

Emily whirled to see a serrated tentacle zooming toward her. She ducked just in the nick of time: If she'd been a second slower, her head would have been skewered. She felt the displaced air ruffle her hair as the tentacle rushed past.

Miskit rapidly fired at it several times, but misfortune had decided to accompany her aim in that instant and she missed. The tentacle snapped like a whip, knocking the ray gun from her hands. Miskit watched in dismay as the weapon fell down toward the ground, then cried out in alarm as that same tentacle wrapped around her and lifted her out of the plane. "Emily!" she shouted.

The girl wasted no time. Acting on instinct, she charged up her amulet and sent out a bolt of energy. The instant it hit the tentacle, the fleshy appendage released Miskit and retreated back toward its hole. Emily reached out as Miskit fell past and grabbed her hand. "Gotcha!" She pulled the pink rabbit into the aircraft. "Are you okay?"

"I think so, yes," Miskit nodded.

"Hey, guys," Navin interrupted, "it's getting a little crowded up here." So many tentacles were filling the cavern that the light from the other end was dimming. He gripped the controls tighter. "Hold on!" He shoved the throttle up to full, making the engines whine. The fuselage creaked and groaned with the stress of maneuvers it wasn't meant to handle at such high speeds as Navin wove through the grasping tentacles. But even his best efforts weren't enough to avoid them all.

Enter his sister. Emily charged up and lashed out at dozens of approaching arms, forcing them back. She noticed the drain from her own reserves as she zapped tentacles again and again. "Get us out of here, Navin," she said. "I can't keep this up much longer!"

Navin focused all his attention on avoiding the thickening tentacles. He stomped down on the pedal under his foot, the overdrive. Seconds later, the aircraft burst out of the cave, tentacles spilling so thickly out of the hole that one might have mistaken for a patch of fur from a distance.

"Good work, Navin!" Miskit praised. She turned on the radio.

Back in the house's command center, Morrie stood next to the speaker as it crackled. "We're through the Gauntlet!" Miskit's voice was jubilant.

"They made it!" Morrie exclaimed.

"How far are we from the arthropods? Over."

Morrie and Cogsley consulted the holomap. "They're right on top of it," Cogsley said.

"You're right on top of it. Over," Morrie relayed.

"He says we're over it," Miskit said. Navin throttled down and banked sharply toward the ground.

"I see it!" Emily shouted. "There's more than one, and they're moving fast!" In fact, there were five, and wherever they were racing to was anyone's guess.

"Navin, take us down," Miskit ordered. "But be careful."

Navin nodded and eased the Albatross downward, throttling down accordingly. When they were about fifty feet above the arachnopods, Emily shouted, "Look!" An arm was sticking out of one of the ventilation holes of one of the creatures and waving frantically. "There's Mom!"

"I'll get the tranq rifle," Miskit said. She hopped into the backseat and snatched up the weapon, broke it at the hinge. "I hope this works," she said to herself as she loaded the round. "Okay Navin, hold her steady." She took aim and pulled the trigger. The hiss of compressed air and quiet pop of the exiting round indicated that the gun worked. The needle pierced the arachnopod's skin, deep enough to hold it there as the green fluid drained. After ten seconds, the creature was still going. "Something's wrong. It should have been affected immediately." A thought struck her, and she closed the vial case and brushed thick dust off the lid. Her eyes widened in horror at the label: Vitamin Supplements.

"Miskit," Emily said, "you okay?"

Miskit jerked, and nodded rapidly. "Oh yeah, everything's just perfect!"

"Navin, get the harpoon ready," Emily ordered. Navin grabbed the harpoon gun.

"Wait!" Miskit snapped.

"What's wrong?" Navin asked.

"Just wait." She turned to his sister. "Emily, let me drive." Emily nodded, and they quickly swapped places. Miskit took a tight hold of the wheel. "Okay, all set. You ready, Navin?"

Navin nodded. Miskit banked the plane gentle to the right to give him a clear shot. He aimed, took three deep breaths, and felt the weapon kick against his shoulder when he pulled the trigger. The harpoon raced toward the arachnopod, and punched through its skin two seconds later. Inside the creature, Karen yelped and jumped back from the shaft's sudden appearance, and the arachnopod shrieked.

The winch spool whirred as the line unwound, then thunked when the cable ran out. The aircraft jerked forward. That ugly animal apparently had tremendous strength. Miskit pulled back on the control column and the engines tilted accordingly, whining with the strain of trying to move in the opposite direction. But they were barely slowing down. "Why isn't it working!?" Emily shouted.

"I messed up!" Miskit shot back.

"What? What do you mean?"

"I brought the wrong darts!" Emily glanced to the box next to her, then back at the beasts only feet below. "I have to cut the rope!" Miskit said. She looked back. "Emily?" The girl stepped onto the edge of the cockpit. "Hey! What are you doing!?" Emily didn't answer, or even look back, before leaping. "No!"

Emily felt her feet leave solid support and she fell into space. The fall was only a dozen feet or so, but landing on something that was round and moving would be tricky. The instant she left the plane, she remembered the amulet around her neck. It read her presence and activated, gently lowering her down on lines of energy. Seconds later, she stood on the back of one of the arachnopods. She looked ahead at the one that held her mother, then at the head of the one she rode. She focused on the point just behind its tentacles and threw a lasso of energy around it like a collar.

The creature screamed, the energy bolts piercing its skin like spurs, and increased its speed in an attempt to escape. Using the energy lasso like reigns, she guided the monster alongside the one they'd speared. "Emily!" Karen cried, reaching out through a hole.

"Mom!" Emily reached back. "Grab my hand!" They reached across the gap, and soon their hands were linked. "Now pull!"

And Karen did. Both pulling against each other would increase the likelihood of getting her out and decrease the time it took to do so. They were pulling with for all they were worth. Karen's other shoulder was almost free when she grunted as a sharp pain suddenly erupted just above her ankle.

Miskit and Navin sat in the Albatross, watching the struggle anxiously. Their attention was suddenly drawn back to the aircraft by a tentacle wrapping around their port wing. "Look out!" Miskit yelled. The tentacle pulled down and the plane leaned. She turned the steering wheel and the engines tilted correspondingly, trying to keep the aircraft level. Navin cried out in alarm.

Karen turned her head toward the plane. "Navin."

"Mom, hurry!" Emily urged.

"Emily, go help your brother!" Karen told her.

"But you're almost out!"

"I can't move." She looked pleadingly at her daughter. "Emily, please go."

Emily was on the verge of tears, glancing back and forth from the plane and her mother. Finally, at her mother's pleading look, she nodded. "I'll come back for. I promise." Their hands left each other, and Karen gave Emily a small smile of encouragement as the arachnopod carrying her veered off. Emily wiped her nose, then focused on her new task. Releasing her mount, she leapt off its back and levitated up to the plane. Two arachnopods had latched into the aircraft now, one on each wing, and were trying to pull it down. One of them shrieked at her approach. She reached out fingers of energy that grabbed the monsters' tentacles, lowered herself into the cabin, and threw her arms around Navin's neck.

Navin and Miskit watched in wonder as blades of energy diced and minced the tentacles that threatened to pull them out of the air, then the energy exploded and both arachnopods beneath them screamed in pain and fear. Miskit flinched.

"Are you okay?" Emily asked Navin, and he nodded. "Miskit, get back on the wheel!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Miskit answered.

"Hey, guys," Navin said, "there's a forest ahead!" Emily and Miskit both look, and Miskit's eyes went wide as saucers.

"It's the end of the line! We need to cut the rope now!"

"No!" Emily was immediately opposed. "We need to stay with Mom!"

"Are you stupid or blind!?" Miskit snapped. "If we stay attached, we'll be pulled right into those trees! Somebody, take the wheel!" Emily did. Miskit drew a knife, leapt over the windshield, dove onto the winch spool and immediately started sawing at the rope. It didn't take long before the fraying line snapped and the aircraft pitched slightly as the strain was relieved. "Now pull up!" Miskit ordered. "Pull up!" Emily and Navin both pulled as hard as they could on the controls, and the engines whined as they tried to lift their load.

They almost cleared the treetops, but not quite. They bulled between two and Miskit was knocked off the nose of the plane and sent flying toward the tail. She managed to grab the backrest of the cabin before she reached the vertical stabilizer and was cut in half. They crash-ed through several more trees before one destroyed their starboard engine and sheared off that wing. They fell through the trees, the one remaining engine unable to do anything as far as keeping them airborne. Luckily, they hit the ground on a slope and slid down it until they hit a large tree head-on. Emily and Navin came out of it with bruised foreheads and bloody noses, but Miskit had been thrown from the plane and smashed against the tree, then clunked headfirst onto the hood of the aircraft.

"Miskit?" Navin asked.

Emily looked to her left and saw the arachnopods clicking up a nearby hill. "Navin, stay here," she said. She didn't wait for Navin's reply.

"What?" He barely got the word out before she jumped over the side. "Emily, wait!" She ignored him, and as she began scaling the slope the arachnopods had ascended, the sky opened up.


	6. Chapter 5

The first thing Emily discovered about the hill was that it was made of rocks. They were large and stable, but smooth, and the rain was making them slippery. Undaunted, she continued her ascent, wedging her fingers and shoes into cracks. The slope wasn't like a mountain, but it was steep enough, and it wasn't long before she was huffing from exertion. It had only been raining for a few minutes and already she was soaked through. But cold, wet and tired did nothing to deter her. She pressed on doggedly, ignoring her muscles' pleas for rest. Her shoe slipped and she fell chin-first into the rocks. Luckily, her tongue hadn't been lolling, or she might have lost it, and her teeth were still intact. She got up and kept going.

The storm was gaining momentum. It was starting to rain harder now, and the drops were getting bigger. They beat her mercilessly, pelting her face and stinging her eyes, turning her hair into red glue that stuck to face, and her clothes clung to her body like a second skin. She ignored it all, doggedly defying the elements that tried to stop her. She could see the top of the slope. Just a few more yards. She fed every bit of spare energy into her limbs, and a few minutes later cleared the top.

There was the arachnopod, its bulbous body standing on eight insectoid legs. Another figure, much like herself, was staring it down. Closer examination revealed it to be the elf boy who had chased her and her brother into the grotto. She only had just enough time to realize this before the stone clasped at his neck glowed and bright green energy lashed out at the arachnopod. The beast shrieked in surprise and pain as the energy sizzled over its body. The energy became brighter as more power was fed into it, and the creature's scream became less surprised and more pained.

Emily was filled with obscene pleasure as she saw the animal expand and heard its scream grow louder until finally it split lengthwise into two ragged, bloody halves, which were left where they fell and the energy wrapped around her mother. "Mom!" she cried. She looked at her mother, limp and helpless in the magic's grasp, then glared at the elf boy. "Let her go!" she demanded. The elf stared right back at her. "I said, let her go!"

The elf gave her a small smile, but it was a cold smile, and his face was hard. He released her mother, and in an instant ensnared Emily in his energy. Emily cried out and yelled in alarm as she was pulled toward the elf. She struggled to free herself, but muscle power had no chance against that of the arcane. "If you want the amulet," she said, her voice laden with disdain and fear, "just take it! But leave my mom and me alone!"

The elf's expression never changed, but he chuckled. "And what makes you believe I'm after the amulet?" His voice was unnaturally deep, sounding much more mature than it should have. He couldn't be much older than Emily, two or three years maybe, but he sounded twice that old. "It's not the stone I'm after; it's you." Emily began struggling again. "Without you, that stone is worthless to me."

"What could you possibly want with me?" Emily asked. "I don't even want to be here!"

"Of course not, but you are here, and for a purpose." At this, she looked at him. "You're the one who will kill my father, the Elf King."

"Whoever he is, I promise I'll leave him alone!"

"Leave him alone?" The elf laughed. "On the contrary, I want to help you destroy him. If we join forces, we can free this land from his iron grip, and you will finish what your great-grandfather started."

Emily gasped, more in fear of everything that was happening than from lack of air. "What are you talking about? This isn't my world; I don't want any part of it. Just let us go."

The elf sighed in frustration. "Stubborn as ever, you humans," he said. "Let me make the decision a little easier for you." An amoebic entity appeared beside her and she gasped. "Say hello to Sybrian." The entity, Sybrian, suddenly wrapped itself around her head and began to squeeze. She screamed in terror as another will began to creep into her mind and gently but firmly take over hers. "Just relax," the elf said. Her face began to turn blue. "Once he's inside your brain, you won't have to think anymore. No pain. No worries. No fears."

_Fear._ The words stirred something deep inside her. _No more fear. Just focus._ And focus, she did. All thoughts of failure, of losing the most integral part of herself to this thing wrapped around her head, were vanquished and replaced by a sudden determination to emerge from this battle victorious. She looked at the elf, and for the first time since seeing him saw curious concern in his eyes. That concern quickly spread to his facial muscles, then turned into fear as the power gathered around her, then finally to terror when that power rushed outward and completely obliterated Sybrian.

Now free of the encroaching will that threatened to subjugate her own, Emily turned all her fury and rage on the elf, who backed away with an expression of complete fear. She was held just above the ground in a sphere of bright red energy, her eyes sparking with anger at the one she interpreted as the enemy. Suddenly, rays of that energy shot out from the sphere, and the elf found himself flying backward before smashing into a rock with such force that, had he not been wearing armor, would have killed him.

_Destroy him, Emily,_ the stone said. _Make him pay._

The elf made a chocked noise as a tendril of energy wrapped around his throat. "No, stop!" he begged.

_Destroy him before it's too late._

"Wait!" the elf pleaded. "You're making a mistake!"

_He took your mother from you. Make him pay!_ The energy sphere around her exploded. The elf shielded his eyes with his hand from the intense light.

Emily was caught somewhere between a righteous desire for revenge and pitiful mercy. One part of her wanted to take the stone's advice and totally obliterate this gray-skinned, pointy-eared freak who had pursued her and her brother so relentlessly, but another part had recognized the hurt and loss buried deep inside his eyes. It was only a minute or so, but seemed like eternity, before pitiful mercy won out. No, she told the stone, putting her hands around it. The energy faded and she slowly lowered to the ground.

_You're making a mistake, young master,_ the stone said, then went silent.

Emily looked at the elf again, who looked back at her with hopeful terror. "Run away," she told him. "And don't ever come near me or my family again. Understood?"

The elf nodded vigorously. "Yes!" And in an instant, he was on his feet and running away from her as fast as he could.

Emily watched him until he disappeared among the trees. She felt the amulet steadily power down, then looked over at her mother, lying motionless in the mud. She ran over to her. Remembering when an EMT had visited the school to give a seminar on first aid, she knelt beside her mother and pressed two fingers against her neck. There was a pulse, but it was weak. She knew she had to get her mom out of the rain, so she got herself under her mom's body and lifted it into a piggyback position. She hadn't gone ten steps before she heard Navin calling for her. She ran toward the voice as fast as she could with the dead weight on her back, and soon met up with him and Miskit.

They stood there, examining Karen's unmoving form, as the rain pelted them.


	7. Epilogue

Back at the house, they all sat around the bed that had previously held Silas Charnon. It had taken them several hours to get back, since the Albatross aircraft had been totaled and they had to walk. They were miserable when they'd finally returned. Wet, cold and tired have never gone well together. Navin and Emily were shivering, sniffling frequently and wiping running noses. The instant they entered the foyer, Miskit had barked orders for Navin and Emily to be given dry clothes and blankets, and their mother to be placed in Master Silas' bed. The orders had been carried out to the letter, and soon the children were beside their mother, freshly clothed and wrapped in warm blankets.

The electrocardiogram beeped steadily with her heartbeat, and her breathing was normal. "Her vital signs are stable," Morrie said. "The poison won't kill her, but she needs an antidote. Otherwise, she may never wake again."

Emily watched her mother for any signs of life other than the steady movement of her chest as she breathed. Her eyes were closed and still, without so much as the twitch of REM sleep. Then Emily looked down at the stone in her hand and felt something very like hatred well up inside her. Her hand began to shake as her face twisted in an angry scowl. Hot tears welling in her eyes, she clasped it in both hands and started to lift it up and off her neck.

The stone sensed this and came to life, tightening the string that it hung from. Emily let out a surprised noise that sounded like a choked gag. _Just relax,_ the stone said. _I promised we'd get her back, didn't I?_

_But not like this! Emily still struggled to get it off her neck. You didn't say she'd be poisoned! How do we find a cure?_

_That, my dear, will be up to you._ The string loosened, and the stone fell silent.

After a moment, when the stone said nothing else, Emily fell back into her depression. Stuck in an unfamiliar world with intelligent robots, giant creatures, energies that seemed like magic and not a clue about any of it was enough to leave anyone in such a state. That was how Emily felt now. Utterly overwhelmed. Trapped in a place she knew next to nothing about, with only the help of her great-grandfather's robotic friends and gut instinct to guide her. She looked at her mom, lying all but dead on the bed, and felt a wave of sadness and failure come crashing over her. "I'm so sorry, Mom," she whispered in a small voice. "I'm so sorry."

"Em? You okay?" Navin asked.

The startled gasp was almost undetectable in the choked sobs. "Yeah." Emily sniffed. "I'm fine."

In the background, the robots were still discussing their position. "The nearest city is Kanalis," Morrie said. "We can probably find what we need there."

"But that's three hundred miles away!" Miskit exclaimed. "Without the Albatross, that trip might take weeks."

"Hey," interrupted Cogsley's gruff voice, "did you jokers already forget? We still have one more vehicle."

Next to the bed, Navin asked, "Do you think she can hear us?"

Emily shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe."

Whether she could or not, Navin planted a kiss on his mother's cheek. "Don't worry, Mom. Everything's going to be okay." He looked at his sister. "Right, Em?"

Emily looked down at the stone in her palm, an expression of new determination spreading across her face. "Yeah, I think so."

"Navin. Emily." They turned to see Miskit looking at them. "It's time to move." With one last glance at their mother, they followed her out into the hall. "Ruby! Theodore!" Miskit called, and the two summoned robots appeared. "Secured all loose items and furniture. And don't forget any passengers."

"Yes, Ma'am," Theodore whirred.

Miskit nodded, then ascended a short staircase. "Hey, Miskit," Emily asked, "where are you going? That's the attic."

Miskit turned around and said, "Come on up. We have to get this house back on its feet."

Navin and Emily looked at each other. "Feet?" Navin asked, and Emily shrugged cluelessly. They followed the pink rabbit up and Navin peeked over the top step and gasped in amazement. This top room wasn't an attic, but a control center. Monitors, panels, keys, buttons, switches and levers covered three walls, and the general din of command chatter pervaded the space. On one side, Cogsley and a boxy robot about twice his size were doing something, while Miskit was reading off a checklist on the other. Navin climbed up and Emily followed on his heels. Both were wide-eyed with wonder.

"Hey, kids," Cogsley said. "Take a seat. We'll be leaving soon."

Both children took a seat in the indicated row lining one wall near the back corner. A moment later, Miskit joined them. "Hey Miskit, what's going on?" Emily asked.

"We need to get to the nearest city to find an antidote for your mother," Miskit answered. "And there's only one way we can get there." She reached up and pulled down a roller coaster-type seat brace in front of them. "Masters secured, Cogsley. Let's go."

"Copy that." Cogsley looked up at the big robot beside him. "You ready, Bottle?" The robot, Bottle, gave a deep meep in reply. "Then let's do this thing." He began slipping switches. "Main power, check. Steam valves, check. Joint motors, check. Hydraulics, check. Navigation, check. Communications, check. Backup generators, check." He nodded. "Everything checks out. Alright, everyone, let's blow this joint!" He shoved one of the two control levers forward and stomped on the opposite pedal.

The house shuddered more violently than any earthquake, and Navin and Emily yelped. The hiss of steam could be heard as pressure valves opened up. The building continued to shake, and suddenly they felt the vertigo that often accompanies an upward ride in an elevator. Emily closed her eyes tight while Navin watched in wide-eyed disbelief as the scene outside shifted and the house stood. Then came a crashing thud as the first truly mobile home they'd ever seen took its first step in who knew how long. They all waited in half-excited suspense as Cogsley guided the house into the lake and toward the cliff, then up the sheer face.

"We're almost out!" Cogsley called a few minutes later.

Emily and Navin watched the light grow brighter as they neared the rim of the deep, dark hole, then blinked as the sun shined its full brilliance on them. Finally, they were out of the hole and on their way, following the river south away from Gondoa Mountain and toward the city of Kanalis.


End file.
